Community MetaSteam | March 2024 - Can we find Moominvalley in the Forbidden West?

[C-Dub]

£28 is quite expensive for The Answer DLC (should be about £18-£20), but why are people expecting it for free? It has a separate budget from the main game, so it has to be sold to make any sense for them to create it.

People get mad about dumb shit.

 

[toxicitizen]

It sucks that the most expensive premium edition doesn't even include it but I'll still gladly take this over having to rebuy the entire game. So far as I'm concerned this is an improvement over their usual business model. Feelings on the price are obviously subjective and I'm not going to tell anyone else how they should feel about it. But I've payed more for games that were shorter than Episode Aigis is going to be. So I don't really have an issue with it personally. I just wish I didn't have to wait until September to play it lol.

People get mad about dumb shit.

I just had to laugh when I saw the thread on Era and the first reply was like "Fuck Atlus". Like, I thought having a DLC upgrade path is what everyone had been asking them to do all along?? This is a case where it's pretty obvious they just can't win no matter what they do lol.

 

[Censored]

we are used to get those expansions with the most expensive bundle.
lengendary editions, premium editions or so, usually get the first expansions (they call them season pass, character pass...)

140 euros for the game and the first DLC to the whole experience is somewhat another level of milking the costumer.
Not as bad as CAPCOM with Street Fighter VI where is like 320 euros, but well...

 

[Le Pertti]

Thankfully that DLC is free on game pass which is where I intended to play P3 to begin with. But is that DLC really needed for the whole experience? Like does regular P3 end on a cliffhanger or something?

 

[C-Dub]

Thankfully that DLC is free on game pass which is where I intended to play P3 to begin with. But is that DLC really needed for the whole experience? Like does regular P3 end on a cliffhanger or something?

No. It’s an extra story that takes place after the original game and was never intended to be part of it.

It released on PS2 in Persona 3 FES (kind of like the Royal version of the original P3) and it was never meant to be in P3 Reload until people asked for it after it was announced.

Atlus has form for not including it, since it wasn’t in P3 Portable either.

And there’s plenty of evidence in the game files to suggest P3R was finished over a year ago, so Atlus would’ve had to allocate a separate budget and put a team together to make this DLC. It’s 100% out of the scope of Reload.

I’m not going to get into whether it should be part of the most expensive edition or not, but the fact is Atlus never advertised it as being part of any edition of the game, so why are people getting mad over some extra content that they otherwise wouldn’t have?

Would people prefer it if Atlus released P3 Reload FES as a separate game at full price?

This whole reaction is just bizarre.

 

[PC-tan]

Screw Persona.

Give me more Jack Bros

 

[Dinjoralo]

DirectX 12 'Work Graphs' aim to eliminate CPU bottlenecks by putting the GPU in charge

Microsoft's big update for DirectX and PC game development aims to eliminate CPU bottlenecks and improve performance with GPU-driven rendering.

www.tweaktown.com

'Work Graphs' aims to reduce the need to use the CPU for tasks and scheduling and switch to a more robust GPU-driven rendering system.

Hmmm. Wonder if games will end up using this at all.

 

[Arc]

No. It’s an extra story that takes place after the original game and was never intended to be part of it.

It released on PS2 in Persona 3 FES (kind of like the Royal version of the original P3) and it was never meant to be in P3 Reload until people asked for it after it was announced.

Since there’s plenty of evidence in the game files to suggest P3R was finished over a year ago, Atlus likely had to allocate a separate budget and put a team together to make this DLC.

I’m not going to get into whether it should be part of the most expensive edition or not, but the fact is Atlus never advertised it as being part of any edition of the game, so why are people getting mad over some extra content that they otherwise wouldn’t have?

Would people prefer it if Atlus released P3 Reload FES as a separate game at full price?

This whole reaction is just bizarre.

This has been the Atlus MO for over 20 years. I guess a lot of people who got into the franchise with the multiplatform release of Royal and Reload got blindsided. Not that it isn't sleazy, but $35 DLC is more tolerable than a $60 rerelease and much better than buying a whole new system.

 

[Lashley]

DirectX 12 'Work Graphs' aim to eliminate CPU bottlenecks by putting the GPU in charge

Microsoft's big update for DirectX and PC game development aims to eliminate CPU bottlenecks and improve performance with GPU-driven rendering.

www.tweaktown.com

Hmmm. Wonder if games will end up using this at all.

If DirectStorage is any indicator, the answer is probably not

 

[kio]

As a general rule of thumb not including every piece of content that was ever produced for a game in it's remake/remaster is a pretty shitty tactic, no matter how it fits in the game narrative or if it was only available in a particular version on a single console in the past. It's nickel & diming 101.

But I have no horse in this race. Please continue the animu talk as usual.

 

[madjoki]

DirectX 12 'Work Graphs' aim to eliminate CPU bottlenecks by putting the GPU in charge

Microsoft's big update for DirectX and PC game development aims to eliminate CPU bottlenecks and improve performance with GPU-driven rendering.

www.tweaktown.com

Hmmm. Wonder if games will end up using this at all.

Not anytime soon.

 

[Mivey]

DirectX 12 'Work Graphs' aim to eliminate CPU bottlenecks by putting the GPU in charge

Microsoft's big update for DirectX and PC game development aims to eliminate CPU bottlenecks and improve performance with GPU-driven rendering.

www.tweaktown.com

Hmmm. Wonder if games will end up using this at all.

Once Unreal Engine and Unity implement it. Then virtually every game will have it by default. Same holds true for DirectStorage 1.2

 

[Durante]

£28 is quite expensive for The Answer DLC (should be about £18-£20), but why are people expecting it for free? It has a separate budget from the main game, so it has to be sold to make any sense for them to create it.

People get mad about dumb shit.

I'm sorry, but no. They remade a game and chose not to include all the content made in the definite edition of the original in that remake.
Then they asked for 70€ for it.

You act like Atlus has no agency in their own decision-making processes.

I just had to laugh when I saw the thread on Era and the first reply was like "Fuck Atlus". Like, I thought having a DLC upgrade path is what everyone had been asking them to do all along?? This is a case where it's pretty obvious they just can't win no matter what they do lol.

They could have easily "won" by including it in the original release.

Would people prefer it if Atlus released P3 Reload FES as a separate game at full price?

"They didn't do the even worse and completely indefensible fleecing of their most dedicated fans that they are usually wont to do with this franchise" isn't really a great defense.

As a general rule of thumb not including every piece of content that was ever produced for a game in it's remake/remaster is a pretty shitty tactic, no matter how it fits in the game narrative or if it was only available in a particular version on a single console in the past. It's nickel & diming 101.

Precisely. (I only read this after already writing all the above, otherwise I could have kept it shorter)

 

[spindoctor]

The whole "This is not that shitty because the company has been way more shitty in the past" is not as compelling an argument as one might think...

 

[toxicitizen]

140 euros for the game and the first DLC to the whole experience is somewhat another level of milking the costumer.
Not as bad as CAPCOM with Street Fighter VI where is like 320 euros, but well...

I'm sorry but what? There is simply no sane way to argue that SF6 costs that much lol. You'd have to include not just all the DLC characters and costumes but also all the pointless avatar garbage and random microtransactions. Most of it is stuff that you simply don't need to enjoy the game and any argument that the base game is "incomplete" is patently absurd.

They could have easily "won" by including it in the original release.

I'm sure people would've still found something to complain about. Personally I don't find it unreasonable to release it (and charge for it) separately if it was planned and budgeted separately from the main game (and would have required the main game to de delayed). But that's just me. I realize this is the kind of thing that's bound to be unpopular so I'm not really looking to defend Atlus here.

 

[Durante]

I don't understand the "planned and budgeted separately" argument.

As a thought experiment, consider this: Bethesda creates a remaster of Morrowind, and in the initial 70€ release of it they don't include the content from Tribunal or Bloodmoon. They release each of these as 35€ DLC a few months later. They claim that this is perfectly reasonable since they planned and budgeted these separately.

Would you be happy with that? If so, then I guess that's fine, I just fundamentally disagree with what I'd expect from a 70€ remaster. If not, then how is this different?

 

[Censored]

I'm sorry but what? There is simply no sane way to argue that SF6 costs that much lol. You'd have to include not just all the DLC characters and costumes but also all the pointless avatar garbage and random microtransactions. Most of it is stuff that you simply don't need to enjoy the game and any argument that the base game is "incomplete" is patently absurda

If you want all alt costumes for main characters you need to spend 120 euros. This (x2)
The coins packs are priced the way you need to spend a little more than the cost of the costumes ; ), and this is made on purpose by CAPCOM. So it's 240 just for the alternative costumes for the main characters (I didn't take shitty world tour things on consideration)
104,99€ the most expensive edition without alternative costumes + 240 euros for all two alternative costumes. Like 345 euros for the "complete" (not even) experience.

345 euros without arcade machines, nor avatar costumes.

 

[toxicitizen]

f you want all alt costumes for main characters you need to spend 120 euros. This (x2)
The coins packs are priced the way you need to spend a little more than the cost of the costumes ; ), and this is made on purpose by CAPCOM.

Sure, that's a scummy tactic but it's also old as fuck and hardly unique to Capcom. It's the same reason hot dogs and hot dog buns come in packs of different quantities. And besides, that's not what you said and not what I was responding.

You said that Street Fighter VI costs about 320 euros. It doesn't. You don't need the alt costumes. I would've gladly bought a pack including them all if it had been priced reasonably, but they decided to pull this shit so I bought a couple for my mains and that was that. They didn't force me to spend more on the game. They released something that I was willing to pay extra for, so I did. If the costumes had sucked, I wouldn't have bought any of them.

 

[STHX]

It took almost a month, but the patch is no longer Epic exclusive

 

[Kyougar]

I don't think Sony only paid 3 months because they knew Square wouldn't have a port ready, I think it's the fact these deals have devauled the IP so much they could afford to go for less

What I don't understand is why Sony even needs to secure exclusivity.
Xbox is dead
Switch won't get a FF mainline game until they release the SwitchU
Square still needs to prove that they can do big-boy numbers on PC day1

 

[PC-tan]

Any recommendations for Eclipse glasses? The total eclipse is happening next month and I would like to buy some in the US and also ship some to Mexico as well.

 

[yuraya]

I don't think Sony only paid 3 months because they knew Square wouldn't have a port ready, I think it's the fact these deals have devauled the IP so much they could afford to go for less

What I don't understand is why Sony even needs to secure exclusivity.
Xbox is dead
Switch won't get a FF mainline game until they release the SwitchU
Square still needs to prove that they can do big-boy numbers on PC day1

It kinda feels like Sony signed multiple year deals with some of these companies because its all too repetitive and dumb this keeps turning out.

I would guess they signed like 5-10 year deals with Square and KoeiTecmo. And in those deals they get timed console exclusivity for certain projects. And in return they market games for these devs and maybe help with some other resources. They let devs keep ip too.

PC gaming is just too big and a lot of these companies make a lot of money with Steam today compared to 5-10 years ago. Wo Long has 25k reviews on steam despite being mixed because the port wasn't that great. It was also on PC Gamepass day 1. It was very successful imo. There is no way Koei Tecmo sees this and thinks lets make Rise of Ronin timed PS5 exclusive.

Square has probably missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars by agreeing to this dumb shit too. Final Fantasy is a very big brand.

Or maybe these companies really have a hard time funding projects to the point where they need Sony to somehow back this otherwise there is no game in the first place. Who knows ...but it wouldn't surprise me if we see all this come to a stop once these deals/contracts dry up in the coming years. Or maybe Sony will come up with some new scheme but I doubt we see this in the next decade. It keeps getting worse and worse for the developers.

 

[Mor]

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I just tested TDM 2.12

The Dark Mod 2.12 has been released! | The Dark Mod

www.thedarkmod.com

I'm pretty sure performance has indeed increased noticeably since last time I tried it. Now may be a good time to get into it seriously.

I also just discovered Thief Guild - Thief Series and Related Games Fan Mission Database, which is helpful to identify the most interesting fan missions.

edit: there is also this,

Fan Mission Series - The DarkMod Wiki

wiki.thedarkmod.com

with links to the forum for each mission.

 

[ezodagrom]

Capcom announced the top 20 players favourite MH monsters results:



And they started a new vote for the favourite monster music themes:

HUNTER'S Choice Monster BGM Edition｜MONSTER HUNTER 20th ANNIVERSARY Website｜CAPCOM

Vote for your favorite song in the HUNTER'S Choice: BGM Edition!

www.monsterhunter.com

 

[Kyougar]

It kinda feels like Sony signed multiple year deals with some of these companies because its all too repetitive and dumb this keeps turning out.

I would guess they signed like 5-10 year deals with Square and KoeiTecmo. And in those deals they get timed console exclusivity for certain projects. And in return they market games for these devs and maybe help with some other resources. They let devs keep ip too.

PC gaming is just too big and a lot of these companies make a lot of money with Steam today compared to 5-10 years ago. Wo Long has 25k reviews on steam despite being mixed because the port wasn't that great. It was also on PC Gamepass day 1. It was very successful imo. There is no way Koei Tecmo sees this and thinks lets make Rise of Ronin timed PS5 exclusive.

Square has probably missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars by agreeing to this dumb shit too. Final Fantasy is a very big brand.

Or maybe these companies really have a hard time funding projects to the point where they need Sony to somehow back this otherwise there is no game in the first place. Who knows ...but it wouldn't surprise me if we see all this come to a stop once these deals/contracts dry up in the coming years. Or maybe Sony will come up with some new scheme but I doubt we see this in the next decade. It keeps getting worse and worse for the developers.

If they really don't have money to finish games without Sony, then Sony masterfully trapped them into a dependency spiral.
Not enough money to finish games without exclusivity
not making enough money because of exclusivity.

 

[Alexandros]

Square Enix is so good at business that they signed with Sony for three months of exclusivity but they won't have the PC version ready by the time the three months are up, therefore giving nine months or more of exclusivity to Sony for free.

 

[Line]

It's the triple AAA equivalent of the EGS deals, selling games to a publisher/constructor is "smart", until they don't pay you (enough) so you close down shop.
But at least the indies have the excuse that they are mostly ignorant of the business.

As far as Sony is concerned, those deals are still a good thing since it removes the PC competition, it never really was about Xbox or Nintendo and all about getting as much revenue from those as possible.
Well, as long as the games do sell well with their expensive collectors, DLCs, potential MYX, etc. I'm not sure that's really the case for Square Enix games nowadays.

 

[kio]

I'm not the most tech savvy guy but I can't understand the reasoning behind "not having a PC version" when consoles nowadays are basically locked down PCs. I could understand that argument in the PS3 generation and the ones before that but, from my dumdum brain point of view, if it works on a modern day console it should work on a normal PC almost 1:1
Please correct me if I'm totally wrong

 

[Ascheroth]

To be quite honest, I think the FF7 remake trilogy is just a really bizarre project anyway, business wise.
From what I can find, the first game apparently started full production in late 2015 and released early 2020. Rebirth released about 4 years later. Assuming the 3rd game takes the same time, this entire project would have taken ~12.5 years.
Spending 12.5 years to remake a single game as 3 separate games, where from the outset it's basically clear that each game will have a lower sales ceiling than the last (because that's what usually happens with direct sequels) and then not even trying to maximize that initial ceiling but instead going exclusive to a single platform again.
And then it's apparently not even a straight-up remake, but instead does new story stuff/changes(?) that works best if you've played the original 27 year old game, so you're inherently also focusing more on an older audience instead of inviting a new generation of players.
And then they are not even on the same platforms. Remake is a PS4 game, with a PS5 only DLC and Rebirth is PS5-only.

 

[Line]

Yes the Remakes are more of a reimagining of FF7.
Which is fine by me really, why not make another take on an old story?

But yes, the trilogy aspect is probably a huge mistake, and looking at the first results of Rebirth, it might already be affecting sales quite deeply. Many reasons altogether though, but being a direct follow up that 100% require the previous game (and not even only the original FF7, with all the changes) is an obvious issue.

Also I started my first run of Final Fantasy 7 since forever using a mountain of mods, including the recent Cosmo upgrades, from upscaled backgrounds and making them work in true 16:9, to light and shadows for new models and improved sound, it's really cool.
I'll post some pics at some point.

 

[lashman]

 

[lashman]

 

[Durante]

I'm not the most tech savvy guy but I can't understand the reasoning behind "not having a PC version" when consoles nowadays are basically locked down PCs. I could understand that argument in the PS3 generation and the ones before that but, from my dumdum brain point of view, if it works on a modern day console it should work on a normal PC almost 1:1
Please correct me if I'm totally wrong

I mean, if you want a good PC port you have to put in some platform-specific work even when using a cross-platform engine.
But that's work that a company with 3 employees can do in half a year (and obviously this could happen during development).

And since we are talking about S-E here, it's not like the vast majority of their PC ports are actually particularly great, especially in terms of PC-exclusive features.

 

[MegaApple]

Capcom announced the top 20 players favourite MH monsters results:



And they started a new vote for the favourite monster music themes:

HUNTER'S Choice Monster BGM Edition｜MONSTER HUNTER 20th ANNIVERSARY Website｜CAPCOM

Vote for your favorite song in the HUNTER'S Choice: BGM Edition!

www.monsterhunter.com

Makes me want to boot up Monster Hunter.
But World is boring solo

 

[Li Kao]

Makes me want to boot up Monster Hunter.
But World is boring solo

Uh, is Rise more interesting solo ? Just asking as I already bought Rise in the very last sale it saw and have been burned blind of World to the point of not finishing Iceborn.

 

[Arc]

To be quite honest, I think the FF7 remake trilogy is just a really bizarre project anyway, business wise.
From what I can find, the first game apparently started full production in late 2015 and released early 2020. Rebirth released about 4 years later. Assuming the 3rd game takes the same time, this entire project would have taken ~12.5 years.
Spending 12.5 years to remake a single game as 3 separate games, where from the outset it's basically clear that each game will have a lower sales ceiling than the last (because that's what usually happens with direct sequels) and then not even trying to maximize that initial ceiling but instead going exclusive to a single platform again.
And then it's apparently not even a straight-up remake, but instead does new story stuff/changes(?) that works best if you've played the original 27 year old game, so you're inherently also focusing more on an older audience instead of inviting a new generation of players.
And then they are not even on the same platforms. Remake is a PS4 game, with a PS5 only DLC and Rebirth is PS5-only.

It's an absolute train wreck of a project and I love it. Playing Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth back to back made me appreciate that SE went insane and didn't do a by the book remake.

I replayed the original a few months back and was surprised at how paper thin the characters were and how small it actually was. If FF7 Remake was just a 1:1 redo of the original but with modern graphics, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as I am. Sure, the game fits a very specific niche, but I fit that niche nicely and am happy with the end result.

 

[Blu]

Out now. Not in English


Do we know when it will release in English?


Also what's with the two pages?

 

[curi0usBystander]

Also what's with the two pages?

Different publishers.
Do we know why the pages were booted? Was it the name or something else?

 

[ezodagrom]

Out now. Not in English


Do we know when it will release in English?


Also what's with the two pages?

One is published by clouded leopard for the asian markets, and the other published by nisa and ported by ph3 for the global market.
The nisa version is coming out this fall and is overall gonna be the better PC version (usually clouded leopard versions are very barebones).

 

[lashman]

 

[Mivey]

I am making more progress with Greedfall, the Spider last RPG (not their newest game though), and so far it's just ... OK? I can see how they put a ton of work on having larger levels, increased fidelity of characters, more voice acting, and so on. And the combat is pretty neat, if a bit finicky on higher levels since it expects you to dodge and block while not being easy to control.

But mostly so far the game just feels kinda empty. They stuck to the old quest design of their previous titles, and just made the world a lot bigger. So it just boils down to running around a lot, while following incredibly linear and easy to predict quest chains. What also makes it pretty dumb is how your abilities are just obviously window dressing. Sure, you can use charisma or your special science abilities to get what you want. But if you can't use those abilities if you lack the skills, then the game always provides a convenient back-up solution that gets you the same result.

"OH you can't unlock the door to proceed this quest since you don't have skills in lockpicking? No matter, here next to the door around the corner is the key for some reason (and the quest marker even tells you where to look for this lost key)"
I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's pretty much how most quests go. Barely any choices, and you just follow the quest marker.

To be fair, I don't think BioWare games of old ever did much more than this, but at least the writing was interesting enough. So far that the game isn't really doing much more than very obvious allusions to American settler colonialism, except it's super vanilla and refuses to really show horror.

 

[Stevey]

More ebay stuff arrived today.

 

[Parsnip]

"However, I cannot go into detail at this time, but I am confident that English-speaking players will enjoy the game as we are preparing a way to know the English translation of the Japanese in the game. Please wait for further details."

I'm glad they are providing the original Japanese rom instead of the PAL version, but very curious what they mean by this. I always hoped they would retranslate it since the PAL release just made up pretty much everything in the story.

 

[STHX]

Spending 12.5 years to remake a single game as 3 separate games, where from the outset it's basically clear that each game will have a lower sales ceiling than the last (because that's what usually happens with direct sequels) and then not even trying to maximize that initial ceiling but instead going exclusive to a single platform again.

Square really though everyone would buy all 3 episodes of FFVIIR and then double dip on pc. Don't forget this is the company that released 5 60 bucks AA rpgs over the span of 2 months, said turn based rpgs are a thing of the past the year BG3 won GOTY (and Persona continues to find success), thinks that remaking the same old story would be boring 1 month after Persona 3 Reload did big numbers, and once changed headquarters because a fortune teller told them too
Let's just say I don't think the big wigs there are very good at their job

 

[madjoki]

Reporting someone else for review manipulation while manipulating reviews for your own games is certainly something...

(DarkCatt Games)

 

[dex3108]

Ubisoft drops new PoP price on Xbox and PS 40% basically 2 months after release. Still refuses to release it on Steam. They really are allergic to money.

 

[Futaleufu]

Ubisoft drops new PoP price on Xbox and PS 40% basically 2 months after release. Still refuses to release it on Steam. They really are allergic to money.

I still expect them to release The Crew Motorfest on Steam... some day...

 

[Mor]

Will leave this here

I still expect them to release The Crew Motorfest on Steam... some day...

 

[Nano]

This price sure is ass.. 899 NOK is $86 lmao